Your Alumni Association
A Message from Kevin O’Brien
Chair, Ivey Alumni Association Board of Directors
“A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations.”—Actor Patricia Neal
In the immediate post-Enron era, the Traditions Committee of the Association created the Ivey Pledge and Ring Tradition – a formal way to recognize and celebrate the values of the School and its graduates. A few years later, recognizing that the Ivey Alumni network had underrealized value, the Association created the Ivey Expectations – Uphold Ivey Principles, Think Ivey First, Be an Ivey Ambassador and Give Back, finally answering the question, “what does it mean to be a good alumnus?” The third step, represented by the elegant graphic on this page, was to explain the “Return on Expectations.” For each Expectation, there is a benefit that accrues to the grad who practices it. When each of us lives the Expectations, we all win. The Ivey Pledge, Expectations and Return on Expectations make explicit something that all Ivey grads understand implicitly. This stuff is in our DNA. Ivey recruits with these values in mind, and fosters them in its students. Kelly Duffin is a perfect example. After a highly successful career in publishing, she chose to use her business expertise in the not-for-profit world. Thinking Ivey first, being an Ivey ambassador and giving back come naturally to her. We all chose to attend Ivey because of who we are. We are who we are in part because of Ivey. Whether it’s conscious or not, the Ivey Expectations are what we expect of each other and ourselves.
Kevin O’Brien, HBA ’93 Chair, Ivey Alumni Association Managing Partner, SECOR Consulting
Uphold Ivey Principles = Act Ethically
REPUTATION
Give Back = Time, Money and Experience
Think Ivey First = Do Business with Ivey Grads
LEGACY
OPPORTUNITIES
Be An Ivey Ambassador = Promote the School
RECOGNITION
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The Three Pillars Making the alumni network more valuable
1 2 3
Community
Fostering connections between alumni to build community
Expectations
Establishing clear expectations of alumni
Voice of Alumni
Facilitating two-way communications between the School and the alumni community
Expectations
Hearing the Call
Kelly Duffin, EMBA ’02, is CEO of the Canadian Hearing Society
“Contributing to social issues has been the basis of my whole career. It’s what motivates me. I also feel that those of us who are lucky enough to work in senior positions have an obligation to make a contribution.”
Kelly Duffin studied English in university, determined to pursue her dream of a career in publishing. She went on to work with Penguin Books, Coles Books, and Random House. She also spent five years running her own business, and helped to launch the Giller Prize for Fiction, now Canada’s most prestigious writing award. Looking for a broader perspective on business, she enrolled in Ivey’s Executive MBA in 2001. She became CEO of the Canadian Hearing Society (CHS) in 2003. “The MBA was an amazing experience for me. It was extremely challenging and that’s what I really enjoyed about it. It was a very intense two years that opened up whole new ways of looking at the world for me. “I fell in love with sign language in my late 20s and started studying it as a hobby. I studied it in as many places as I could. When I finished my MBA I started to think about what more I could do, and Random House gave me a great opportunity. Then I saw the ad for CHS and realized that this job would unite everything. “The biggest challenges in the nonprofit sector are financial. One of the things we have done is diversify our revenue streams and continue to grow them efficiently. It has been personally and professionally rewarding to see how we can make that happen. “I keep in touch with classmates from the Executive MBA. Several of us have changed jobs in the six years since we graduated and we have really helped each other with that. It’s a supportive network, whether for connecting with executive recruiters, giving references, hearing about openings or just moral support. “I hired one of my classmates as VP marketing and business development. She was the best person for the job and has really proved herself. Some of my classmates have become donors to CHS, and two are coming to a CHS charity golf tournament this summer. “I talk about the Ivey experience a lot. When I was still in the program, I encouraged a publishing colleague to observe one of our classes. She subsequently completed her MBA. “For me the Ivey MBA was a great opportunity to make a career transition that I couldn’t have made without it. For anybody who is thinking about what the next ten years may hold and how they can make change, I tell them that the Executive MBA really created the opportunity for change for me.“
RIGHT: KELLY SIGNS THE LAST TWO LETTERS OF U.W.O.
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IVEY INTOUCH MAGAZINE | SUMMER ’08
PHOTOGRAPHER: NATION WONG